Griffins Rally in Water Polo

Top-ranked Los Alamitos scored three fourth-quarter goals to overtake Capistrano Valley and win, 10-8, in nonleague boys’ water polo Friday at Saddleback College.

The Griffins, after an impressive showing at last week’s Southern California Invitational, had to struggle to keep up with sixth-ranked Capistrano Valley .

“We started off very slow,” Los Alamitos Coach Tony Martinho said. “We’ve been training very hard this week, so the boys were kind of tired. But we knew this was going to be a tough game. Any time you come to Saddleback College to play Capistrano Valley, you know you’re in for a tough game.”

Capistrano Valley was led by Xander Dean on defense and Pat McConnell on offense. McConnell dominated the hole most of the game, scoring two of his three second-quarter goals on two-meter back-handed shots. He also scored in the third quarter.

However, after some changes by Martinho, which included putting top Griffin defensive player Matt Foster on McConnell, Los Alamitos opened the fourth quarter looking like a completely different team.

After goals by David Kong, Tyler Wawrzynski and James Ahn in a two-minute span, Los Alamitos took control of the game and dominated the Cougars through the last quarter.

Kong scored four goals to lead Los Alamitos. Wawrzynski finished with three.

Tom Carey had 12 saves for Los Alamitos (16-4). Eric Meadows had 10 for Capistrano Valley (15-6).